Liverpool's Luis Suárez was named Premier League player of the month after scoring 10 goals in December, the first player to reach double figures in a calendar month. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Luis Suárez says he is a changed man and is constantly working to improve his attitude on the pitch while his Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard said that claiming the Premier League title would top his Champions League-winning heroics.

Suárez told ESPN: "My temperament, attitude, desire and hunger when I am on the pitch has always been like this and will continue to be this way. I now know I have to control it more."

The striker added: "An example of this was about two weeks ago when I had an open shot at goal and hit the post and it rebounded close to my hand, and I was about to go for it and then I stopped.

"If the same thing had happened two months ago I would have gone for it. These things stay with me but I tell you I am changing. I am improving my attitude on the pitch because I know I was wrong in the past and I was creating an image of myself I know wasn't me."

Suárez has played only 15 league matches as he had to serve the remaining half of a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic in April.

The season before that the 26-year-old was banned for eight matches after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Gerrard is excited by the prospect of this season being his best chance to win the only domestic honour which has eluded him. The 33-year-old would "snap your hand off" for a fourth-place finish even if the midfielder feels the club can achieve better.

Liverpool, fourth heading into the weekend, were top on Christmas Day and the last team not to win the title having held that position were the Reds in 2008.

"This is probably my best chance to surprise this country and countries throughout the world to maybe nick the Premier League," he told Sky Sports. "Sitting here in the middle of January I have a fantastic chance of having a right good crack and getting involved in a title race.

"I've finished second on a couple of occasions but we've never come really close. If we perform like we have done over the last couple of months, we can get involved in the title race so that is very exciting.

"It scares me in a way because I don't know how I'd handle myself. When I won the Champions League [in 2005] the week after that talk about being on cloud nine or over the moon – all the clichés – it was better than that.

"If I could add a Premier League title to my collection it would mean the world to me, it would probably be the best day of my life besides my kids being born. I think it would top the Champions League because it is the one I haven't got."

Liverpool have not featured in Europe's elite club competition since 2009 and Gerrard admits what is most important is regaining that status.

"I'd take fourth now," he said. "We have been out of the Champions League for so long, to have that chance to play a couple of qualifiers against sides you should beat – I'd snap your hand off but I am confident we can finish higher.

"The manager mentions the Champions League, he sets us aims and challenges and, of course, Champions League is the talk around the place all the time – but that was the case when we didn't qualify for it.

"For the players it is the ultimate competition to be involved in and you want to compete against the best. All the lads who are a lot younger than me at this club need to play and sample it."

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